Skinny fat may not be so bad after all

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lodro
lodro Posts: 982 Member
in Food and Nutrition
For years, being "skinny fat" has been something we're told to avoid being, and the holy grail has always been to drop body body fat percentage while losing weight through calorie restriction. However, a new study into calorie restriction in mice points to the fact that those mice that lost weight through calorie restriction but had a relatively higher body fat percentage, lived longer than mice that got leaner.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-9726.2011.00702.x/abstract
Dietary restriction (DR), one of the most robust life-extending manipulations, is usually associated with reduced adiposity. This reduction is hypothesized to be important in the life-extending effect of DR, because excess adiposity is associated with metabolic and age-related disease. Previously, we described remarkable variation in the lifespan response of 41 recombinant inbred strains of mice to DR, ranging from life extension to life shortening. Here, we used this variation to determine the relationship of lifespan modulation under DR to fat loss. Across strains, DR life extension correlated inversely with fat reduction, measured at midlife (males, r = −0.41, P < 0.05, n = 38 strains; females, r = −0.63, P < 0.001, n = 33 strains) and later ages. Thus, strains with the least reduction in fat were more likely to show life extension, and those with the greatest reduction were more likely to have shortened lifespan. We identified two significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting fat mass under DR in males but none for lifespan, precluding the confirmation of these loci as coordinate modulators of adiposity and longevity. Our data also provide evidence for a QTL previously shown to affect fuel efficiency under DR. In summary, the data do not support an important role for fat reduction in life extension by DR. They suggest instead that factors associated with maintaining adiposity are important for survival and life extension under DR.

Interesting! Although studies in mice are not the most accurate predictor of how things will turn out with humans. On the other hand, it seems that reducing the body fat percentage is something that will actually reduce lifespan, below a certain range, not increase it!

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  • donicagalek
    donicagalek Posts: 526
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    IMO (which will be bashed, I'm sure) in order to be thin and toned and have low body fat you would either have to malnourish yourself OR put a ton of stress on your body to burn the cals off. Ever known any body builders? The ones that do it in a healthy way are far and few.

    They carb deplete to the point of near-insanity weeks before a competition and then load up on them right before to look their "best". They spend hours every day just flat-out injuring themselves. It's hell on your body, but hey - it's their body and it makes them happy. Either way...they have a low body fat percentage. I knew one woman that couldn't type because the pads on her fingers hurt - her BFP was that low.

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